I'm staying in the Sydney Central YHA for my last night in Australia. It's a lovely hostel, although a bit expensive. I was originally going to stay with my friend Sonal for the evening, but then I got here so early in the morning (3am Perth time, 6am Sydney time) that no one was awake yet. That meant that:

I had no where to store my bags

I was soooo tired that I just wanted to take a nap right away until the rest of the world woke up.

So that's what I did.
I met a woman named Pam from Collingwood, ON, while waiting for the bus. She was going to get a hotel so that she could really sleep well. I suggested a twin room to save a little money. That worked out well because we got off the bus, walked about 20 metres to the YHA, got a twin room straight away, without having to wait for someone to check out. It even has an ensuite bathroom! LUXURY!

I had a nice 2-hr nap before heading to The Coffee Roaster for a couple flat whites. They seemed happy to see me and wanted to hear about my travels. They marvelled at my tan.

Once I was sufficiently caffeinated, I headed to my old place in Surry Hills with a dozen croissants to thank them for storing my stuff. There was only a brief moment of panic when I thought that Ander had given the wrong box to the Salvation Army. But no, he'd thoughtfully stored my important boxes in his room. Whew!

Sonal picked me up from the house and dropped me back at the hostel with the package sent from Melbourne. Of course, then I had to go buy a new piece of luggage for all my extra crap. Easy: $35 got me a massive rolling suitcase.

Only problem: I'm probably over the luggage allowance. Oops.
And yet I can't stop buying things. STOP THE INSANITY!!

Now I'm catching up on email and blogging and trying not to fall asleep. It's a tough order.

I feel like I should do something fun to commemorate my last day here, but I honestly cannot be assed. Besides, even if I wanted to go to the beach, for example, the weather in Sydney is pretty grey and spotted with light rain. I could have gone to the markets, but then I'd just spend more money. And who needs that, really??

People keep asking me what it's like to be going home. I keep telling them that I'm just not ready.

Coming to Sydney has been almost like going home. Everything is so familiar. But I just want to go back to Perth or even Melbourne, where I have friends. Stupid Sydney.

I feel like I haven't had enough time.

Don't get me wrong: I wanna go home to see my family and friends. I do. But it's weird to be leaving behind so many great people and such great weather and such a fantastic lifestyle. Let's face it: once home, it's back to REAL life.

I plan to fight "real life" all the way. I have plans. I don't want to get stuck again. I want to keep being Cathy.au because I've had so much more fun. So I'm going to try to keep things interesting. And remind myself often that there are infinite possibilities in life.

My day with Dave yesterday was interesting because we talked about that. After being away for a year and getting used to being away, you start to realize that, although home is where your family is, there's nothing HOLDING you to "home" because of the wonders of modern communications. The entire world opens up to you. And suddenly, you can do anything, go anywhere. Doing anything less seems, well, boring.

So here's a cheer for living life with passion!

Tomorrow I'm off to Tokyo overnight and then home at 1:30pm EST. Wish I could just close my eyes and BE there already, hugging my parents, sleeping in my fabulous bed with my cat. Sigh...